Danny Burns

This book introduces Systemic Action Research (SAR) – a participatory methodology designed to transform “hard to shift” system dynamics. Featuring rich case studies, this is an invaluable guide for those committed to enabling large-scale social transformation and tackling complex crises.

Ultrasound Anatomy, 2nd Edition, offers practical, comprehensive coverage of the ultrasound images and important structures that are most frequently encountered in daily practice and during point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). This approachable text integrates concise text, detailed ultrasound images with corresponding cadaver photographs, full-color anatomical and technique illustrations, and videos to provide a solid foundation in regional ultrasound anatomy. The enhanced 2nd Edition features reorganized content for improved learning, with chapter Q&As now conveniently placed at the end of each section. More than 30 new figures, additional pathologies, and new content on central venous catheterization and joint aspiration make this an indispensable resource for today's ultrasound practitioners. NEW! Content on central venous catheterization and joint aspiration broaden students’ mastery of clinical sonography practices. UPDATED! Photos, illustrations, and ultrasound images clarify patient positioning, probe positioning, and surface anatomy in vibrant detail. Clinical Applications provide a clinical context for the types of structures and cases students will encounter on rotations. Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) exam chapter familiarizes students with the protocols used by surgeons, emergency physicians, and some paramedics to screen for certain conditions after trauma. Ultrasound videos and USMLE-style review questions available online reinforce critical content and strengthen test-taking confidence.

Governments and organizations invest huge sums of money in development interventions to explicitly address poverty and its root causes. However, a high proportion of these do not work. This is because interventions are grounded in flawed assumptions about how change happens -- change is rarely linear, yet development interventions are almost entirely based on linear planning models. Change is also characterized by unintended consequences, which are not predictable by planners and by power dynamics, which drive outcomes towards vested interests rather than real need. Development processes need to engage effectively with these sorts of complex system dynamics. This book provides a conceptual framework for this thinking, offers detail case studies of interventions which have been built on this philosophy and which demonstrate key facets of it. It articulates some clear methodological underpinnings for this work, and draws out the implications both for development, practice and practitioners.

Governments and organizations invest huge sums of money in development interventions to explicitly address poverty and its root causes. However, a high proportion of these do not work. This is because interventions are grounded in flawed assumptions about how change happens -- change is rarely linear, yet development interventions are almost entirely based on linear planning models. Change is also characterized by unintended consequences, which are not predictable by planners and by power dynamics, which drive outcomes towards vested interests rather than real need. Development processes need to engage effectively with these sorts of complex system dynamics. This book provides a conceptual framework for this thinking, offers detail case studies of interventions which have been built on this philosophy and which demonstrate key facets of it. It articulates some clear methodological underpinnings for this work, and draws out the implications both for development, practice and practitioners.

Systemic Action Research works with real social and organisational issues to uncover their complex dynamics, often revealing unexpected opportunities. This book shows how this process can be integrated, in any context, to the process of social and organisational development and change. The book explains how systemic thinking works and how Systemic Action Research can be embedded into organisational structures and processes to catalyse sustainable change and critical local interventions. Practically written, it details how to design a programme and build it directly into policy and practice development, extending the possibilities of action research beyond the 'individual' and the 'group' to work across whole organisations, multi agency governance arenas, and networks. The book is filled with illustrative stories and pictures which bring the concepts to life enabling the reader to develop a clear picture of how to put it into practice. Systemic Action Research programmes are now being adopted in Government and local governance contexts as well as in national and international NGOs. This book will be invaluable for experienced action researchers as well as social science and social policy researchers who will benefit from an approach to qualitative research which is participative, grounded in practice and allows systemic understandings of complex problems. Policy makers and practitioners will appreciate a process which generates meaningful evidence about the dynamics of change and offers a tangible system for continuously integrating that learning into both formal and informal decision-making.

This report documents the results of road-testing two frameworks for assessing community participation: Active partners: Benchmarking community involvement in regeneration (Yorkshire Forward, 2000) and Auditing community participation: An assessment handbook (The Policy Press, 2000). The report examines whether the tools were useful, what worked most effectively and how the tools might be amalgamated on the basis of what was learned from the road-testing. The practical difficulties involved in using the tools were also explored. The lessons learned have enabled the production of a new companion handbook for development and assessment, Making community participation meaningful, which combines and develops the original frameworks.

This handbook is a companion volume to What works in assessing community participation? (The Policy Press, 2004) which documents the results of the road testing of two earlier frameworks for assessing community participation - Benchmarking community involvement in regeneration (Yorkshire Forward, 2000) and Auditing community participation: An assessment handbook (The Policy Press, 2000). Making community participation meaningful outlines key considerations that are necessary to ensure that community participation is effective; provides detailed sets of questions to enable stakeholders to assess the extent to which the indicators of success are being met; highlights a variety of resources which can be used by community groups to generate information and insight into the key issues and offers the real prospect of a commonly accepted assessment framework which has the authority to be adopted across sectors.

This wide-ranging book sets discussion of the various approaches to local government decentralisation in the context of the changing nature of public service management and the possibilities for new kinds of public involvement in government decision-making. It draws on a wide range of experiences throughout the UK as well as the findings of an in-depth study of the impact of radical decentralisation strategies in two inner London boroughs to provide an authoritative assessment of the politics of decentralisation.